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PARRY
,
JOHN HUMFFREYS
or
HUMPHREYS
(
1786
-
1825
),
antiquary
.

His father,
EdwardPerry
(
1752
-
1805
),
cleric
, was the son of
EdwardParry
, ‘
gent.
’
, of
Nerquis, Flints.
; he went up to
Jesus College
,
Oxford
, in
1772
, but
Foster
has no record of his graduation;
W. D.Leathart
(q.v.)
attributes ‘
high literary attainments
’ to him; he was
rector
of
Llangar
,
1784-9
, and of
Llanferres
,
1789-1805
(
Thomas
,
S. Asaph
), but lived at
Mold
,
keeping school
and acting as
curate
of
Mold
. He m.
AnneWynne
.

J. H.Parry
, it would seem, was his parents’ eldest son. He was b. at
Mold
6 April 1786
, and
went to
Ruthin school
(
Thomas
, op. cit., ii, 132). He was afterwards in the office of his uncle, a
lawyer
at
Mold
. On his father's death he inherited some money, went up to
London
in
1807
, and was
called to the Bar
in
1811
. But he ‘
neglected his practice
,’ fell into debt, and took to
journalism
, writing under the pseudonym ‘
Ordovex
.’ In
1819
he founded
The Cambro-Briton
, of which he brought out three volumes (
1820-2
), and in
1824
published a biographical dictionary,
The Cambrian Plutarch
. He was a member of the
Gwyneddigion Society
, and was one of the men who, in
1820
, revived the
Cymmrodorion Society
— he was its
secretary
for a year, and edited the first volume
1822
) of its
Transactions
. When, in
1822
, the government decided to print the older
Britishhistorians
,
Parry
was appointed
editor
of the
Welsh
section —
AneurinOwen
(q.v.)
was appointed to succeed him after his death. He was
killed in a tavern brawl
at the ‘
Prince of Wales
,’
Pentonville
,
12 Feb. 1825
.
Leathart
describes him as ‘
a generally intelligent man, though somewhat hasty and overbearing
.’ He left a widow and five children in great poverty; the
Gwyneddigion
and
Cymmrodorion
, chiefly through the efforts of
Bardd Alaw
(q.v.)
, collected more than £1,000 for their benefit. One of these children was
JOHNPARRY
(
1816
-
1880
), a
barrister
, and one of the last to be entitled ‘Serjeant’; he appears in
D.N.B.
— a strong radical and a famous
pleader
, who appeared in some very notable cases, e.g. the
Tichborne case
, and
Whistler
v.
Ruskin
.

Sources:

Leathart
,
Origin and Progress of the Gwyneddigion
Society of London
(1831)
, 54, 61, 66;

Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography
;

Y Cymmrodor
,
1951
, 106, 151-2.

Another (the fourth) of
EdwardParry
's sons was
THOMASPARRY
(
1795
-
1870
),
bishop
. According to
D.N.B.
(which misnames his father), he was b. ‘in
Denbighshire
’ — possibly, therefore, at
Llanferres
. He went up to
Oriel College
in
1812
, ‘aged 17,’ graduated with distinction in
1816
, and was
Fellow
of
Balliol
,
1818-25
. In
1824
, he was appointed
archdeacon
in the
West Indies
, and in
1842bishop
of
Barbados
. His health broke down and he returned to
Britain
in
1869
; he d. at
Malvern
,
16 March 1870
.